Electronic portable devices typically use some form of removable battery pack for powering the device. Cantilever spring battery contacts are often used to bring power from the removable battery pack to a printed circuit (PC) board located in the device. Based on a range of design tolerances, these springs have a minimum beam length and height. Due to the nature of the springs these contacts can take up valuable PC board space. An example of this type of electronic device is a two-way radio transceiver.
One problem associated with battery packs of this type occurs when they are subjected to adverse conditions such as a fall or drop onto a hard surface. This subjects the battery pack and its associated electrical contacts to such high “g” loads that the impact often temporarily disconnects the battery from the electronic device. This, inturn, can cause a condition often referred to as “reset” where information stored in static memory may be lost during the time this discontinuity occurs. Moreover, in situations where these types of batteries are used in public safety applications, such as a two-way radio transceiver for police and fire personnel, the transceiver may be in an “off” state where the user is unaware of this situation and important communications could be missed. Although redundant battery contacts have been used in battery packs of the prior art, this solution often requires a great deal of physical space making the battery contact area larger than can be accepted for required design parameters.
Accordingly the need exists for a battery contact assembly having high reliability that requires a limited amount of surface area for preventing reset conditions of an electronic device in adverse conditions.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.